Richard Ross-Smith was educated at Scotch College and the University of Adelaide. He was first admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of South Australia and Federal Court in 1978.

He was a partner in one of Adelaide largest commercial law practises.

Richard was admitted to the South Australia Bar 1996. He has spent the whole of his practicing life in the fields of commercial and corporate law. His specialities are insolvency, trade practices disputes, banking and finance, property disputes, trusts and equity and construction law. He has tutored in torts at the University of Adelaide.

His interests outside of the law are sport (playing and watching it), theatre, films and wine.

Fundamentally he is a trial lawyer, and has appeared in a vast number of trials and appeals in the Federal, Supreme and District Courts.

He retired in 2022 as the Chair of the South Australian Chapter of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners, and remains heavily involved in the CPD and symposium initiatives of the Society